Hi all,
(Disclaimer : I did use AI to help make this post, after much frustration my writing style was suffering)
I’m hoping someone can help me understand what went wrong here. What should have been a straightforward router setup turned into a 3-hour marathon of resets, reconfiguration, and troubleshooting.
I’m using the Alta Labs Internet Controller with an Alta Labs Router 10 and two Cisco SFPs (RJ45 10GbE).
First time Alta customer, I do like trying new products, and at this price point this router was recommended by the local forums for people wanting up to 10GB WAN connections.
Initial setup
At home, I configured the brand-new router on the same ISP and connection type as the customer:
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WAN 2 : DHCP, no VLAN tagging, No Mac address requirements
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IPv6: /56 via DHCP-PD
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Initially configured using the 10G SFP+ WAN 2 port
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Fresh Alta account/site
Everything worked perfectly, including IPv6 testing.
I then installed it at the customer site, which uses the same ISP and settings. Everything worked initially, including IPv6.
A few hours later, I was told their Shelly automation devices weren’t working. I could see them receiving IP addresses, so I suspected an IPv6 or IPV6 LAN DHCP issue.
I disabled IPv6 on both the WAN and LAN, and the router went offline. That’s when things went downhill.
The troubleshooting marathon
The only things connected during all of this were:
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WAN 1: 10G port on the fibre ONT from the ISP
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LAN 2: My laptop, set to DHCP
I then:
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Reset the router and tried setting it up through WAN 1 (2.5GbE), as recommended in the manual.
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The router wouldn’t connect to the internet through
192.168.1.1, despite the settings being correct. Tried WAN 2 as well — no luck. -
Deleted the device from the site, reset it again, and eventually managed to get it online through WAN 1. This took several resets, including some where it flashed red.
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Added DNS servers (
1.1.1.1and8.8.8.8) to the network configuration. -
Repeated the local setup: DHCP, no VLAN, no MAC override,
192.168.1.1/24. -
The router prompted for a firmware update. I clicked update and it immediately disconnected and never came back.
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More resets. Deleted the device/site and started again with a new network and DNS configured. Still no luck.
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Tried again using the default network without manually specifying DNS. Still no luck.
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Deleted that site, created another one, and finally got the router working again.
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Moved the WAN connection to the 10G SFP+ WAN 2 port. It stopped working again. Windows showed the laptop as connected, but I couldn’t browse, which made me suspect DNS wasn’t working.
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After nearly three hours, I created another fresh site, set everything up again on WAN 1, left IPv6 disabled, and finally got it stable.
The Shelly devices are now working, and we subsequently updated their firmware without issue.
What I’m trying to understand
What was I doing wrong here?
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Why is the initial setup so sensitive to resets/sites/DNS configuration?
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Is the cloud controller expected to be this hit-and-miss during setup?
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Why would moving the WAN connection from WAN 1 to the 10G SFP+ WAN 2 port cause the internet connection to not work? I even tried a reboot?
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Is there a specific procedure I should follow to move the WAN connection to WAN 2 without having to start all over again?
The end goal is WAN 2 over 10GbE, because the customer has a 4Gbps internet connection, so I really need to use the 10G SFP+ port. I don’t need dual wan, failover or anything. Just the internet running off WAN 2.
At this point I’m reluctant to touch it again because I don’t have another three hours to spend getting the router back online.
Any advice on what I might have been doing wrong, or the correct procedure for moving from WAN 1 to WAN 2, would be hugely appreciated.
WAN setup looks like this (WAN1 active currently)
Firewall Rules are Vanilla, No IPS/IDS at this stage.
When I click DNS, it just spins as above but if those settings aren’t of consequence, then no worries.
Further settings for reference
